Standing By
by Hellhound314
Summary: Another day in the life of a Militia Spectre. This was originally a short story, buuuut I kinda wanna good story from this too so yeah. Don't just read, review this crap so I can make it better!


**Standing By **

I don't sleep anymore; not in the last decade anyways. It's not a sleeping disorder, it's because I'm a machine. I use to be human a long time ago when I still slept. Almost my entire body including some of my brain has been replaced or upgraded to the point where I have more in common with the Spectres in cargo then humans. In fact I'm quite frequently mistaken for one of those robots of war. It can be amusing to see the confusion when people speak with me. For example; the day before a new recruit to the Militia came up to me. He had never seen a Spectre before. He had heard the horror stories and seen some of the battle footage, but never encountered one in person.

I was on standby mode in the Titan hangar, like I said I don't sleep but standing by is like staring off into space or meditating, and this had what replaced sleep. The recruit walked up to me with suspicion. My body was sitting down on the ground leaning against a crate, so he decided to kick me and see what happened. I was in the process of remembering a previous battle when my kinetic sensors alerted to a sudden impact. I immediately jumped up in danger mode. This recruit, no this boy was standing upright in front of me. Assessment was that the ship was stable, but this might have been an enemy boarding. Within the .0128 seconds to process this I moved my arm and lifted him by the collar, pulled out my B3 Wingman with my other arm, and shoved it in his face.

He screamed for someone to help, I was forced to reassess the situation from his unusual response. New assessment; moron, more specifically a colonial farmer or new recruit. I released him and returned my revolver to its magnetic lock on my 'hip'. "Next time you startle a pilot, you might not survive." ,my synthetic voice warned. I walked away from the frightened recruit to check on the work being down on my Titan.

I had been using the same Titan since before the Militia began its rebellious war for freedom from the IMC. We had been in dozens of battles together, and we have both replaced more parts then we had started with. Most Titans come with a rudimentary A.I. capable of very basic combat, picking up its pilot to insert into their seat within said Titan, and following the basic commands of 'follow' or 'stay'. Mine was not so basic, I had personally upgrade it to the intelligence of a very smart dog, and was capable of much more sophisticated combat abilities, and complicated commands such as 'attack', 'covering fire', 'pick that up', and 'save those idiots from the other Titan over there'. She was my cohort more than just a machine too me. I may have programmed the A.I., but it has saved my life on many occasions when I've jumped out to do more sensitive work.

I've used a few before her sure. I was first given an Atlas, your basic chassis for most pilots. It had good armor and movement and able to pack a stronger punch when needed, but an ambush against three enemy Titans cost me my right arm and left leg. The next chassis I used was an Ogre; with its heavy armor it was a walking fortress of awesome that made infantry irrelevant, but the combined effort of a pilot and her Titan cost me most of my internal organs, my right eye, and my other leg.

The most insulting part of the fight with the Titan was not because it had a slightly more advanced A.I., but it was a Stryder. Stryders have the bare minimum for armor, and it felt like the biggest insult to be defeated by something with no real armor when you're using something that has three layers of reinforced armor that can withstand shots from orbit. My survival was due to another pilot from my side of the war in his Stryder killing the enemy pilot that had bypassed my armor through a maintenance port that was not secured properly. Afterwards he out maneuvered the enemy Titan and ripped out its core. Then he used it as a make shift grenade to get rid of incoming Titans. While they were either distracted, or to damaged to fight he grabbed what was left of me and with excessive speed and brought me back to an evacuating shuttle with other wounded and dead. They were taking me to the morgue in a cart with four other bodies when I grabbed a horrified orderly and demanded to speak to the man who saved me. He said our shuttle was the last to leave, and the man who saved me had stayed behind to make sure the enemy couldn't destroy the shuttle before it made the jump to safety.

I made two choices that day: One; I was going to start using a Stryder chassis from then on, and B; I was going to just release my hold on any semblance of humanity I still retained and replace everything with machinery. After the months of surgery, engineering, and psychological eval's I was more prepared than ever for combat.

As I walked up to my Titan she activated within my presence looked at me with her sensors making one of her happier sounding beeps and whistles. She was a Stryder with a black paint job, a shark smile and eyes in the front with just a little of the Militia's green and orange colors on the joints. "It is good to see you too." I have great difficulty expressing any form of emotion with a monotone voice, but I liked it that way. People are less likely to read into things too much when their speaking to a robot. She continues to make more incoherent noises. She's not really talking as she is expressing emotions by sending positive feedback information in the form of auditory signaling on specific data such as accomplishing a task or seeing my arrival. But for you meat bags out there she is using beeps and whistles to simply say she was happy to see me.

After acknowledging her she then transitions to angry sounding audio for a minute followed by a sad whistle. "A new guy tried to replace your leg, and did a bad job on the wiring huh? Don't worry girl, I'll have a word with Greggs." I walk away and she beeps happily before returning to her own standby mode. Unlike Spectres I move silently. No hydraulic hissing, no clanky footsteps, and no audio binary that most meat bags mistake for white noise. So the ones most familiar with my presence had long sense ceased to be startled by my sudden silent appearance. "Good afternoon, Billy."

The assistant jumped at the synthetic voice and put a hand on his pistol, but Chief Engineer William Greggs didn't even turn his old bald head around, "Hello Grimm, I see you still scare the shit out of the new guys like always." He said in his old gravelly voice.

"Just a humorous byproduct of my existence, one of your new guys needs to pay attention to his wiring. Lucy is upset about her new leg." The assistant dropped his hand back down, but continued to stare.

"Damn it, these recruit need to learn how to read. I keep leaving notes for simple things not to do, and working on Lucy was one of them. I'll take a look at it in a moment before I decide how much to yell at them. Was there anything else you needed?"

"Nothing for now Billy, but why are there so many recruits around?"

"You obviously didn't pay attention to how many people died in that last battle, but safe to say we're still short handed for the next couple of weeks."

"To be fair I stopped paying any attention to the numbers in the previous war."

"The only way anyone of us seemed to get by back then."

"I'm starting to think that won't be enough this time around, at least for you meat bags that is."

He chuckled at that, "Yes, well we don't all decide to through away our heart, even if it was riddled with bullet holes. I'll see you later Grimm, I'm going to make sure that leg doesn't explode on Lucy on her next Titanfall."

"Acknowledged." There were a few habits I've picked up from machines I'll admit. I proceeded to the infirmary for my bimonthly diagnostics. I met the ships Spectre Technician, Lisa Holms, and Dr. Bud Coleman. Thankfully the only new face there was a young lady next too Lisa. "Good afternoon Doc, Lisa." Doc was relatively young in his mid twenties, but already aged beyond his years. The grey hair was genetic, his wrinkles were not. Lisa was about the same age, and always seemed to have a splotch of hydraulic fluid somewhere on her person. Today it was on her right shoulder. "Who is she?" I indicated the wide eyed girl.

Lisa spoke up, "Asuna here is my new apprentice." She said with a drawl, "With all the Spectres we've been hijackin' from the IMC, the brass sent us an exceptional recruit to learn the trade of workin' on metal men. And her first lesson under my wing is to learn how to do a diagnostics on you."

"I can tell this will take longer than usual. It is good I already have all the time in the world."

The apprentice marveled at me, "I can see it's much more advanced than most Spectres, but I still don't understand why we have to work on it here."

"Darlin', _he_ is the reason I refer to all Spectre's as male rather than female. First time I met him I learned real quick from the old men around him that he out ranks everyone on the ship by experience. His name is Grimm, and he hasn't been human for a very long time."

Her expression goes from mild surprise to terror within seconds. She bows forward deeply and sputters, "I'm deeply sorry, Sir! I didn't realize!"

I cock my head to the side in confusion then look to Lisa with a raised input cover in place of an eyebrow. "Yeah she seems to do that bowin' thing a lot for some weird reason."

"Apology accepted, Asuna. Shall we begin as usual Lisa?"

"Of course." With that I walk over to the same dentist chair I always sit in, and they plug into my cybernetic hybrid brain. "This here monitor is mostly for Doc to check on his organic and cerebral cybernetic parts that are in his noggin'. We get plenty of data from pluggin' him in but we still need to attach these here redundant relay nodes to get an accurate diagnostics of his systems. Kinda like a grounding wire for an oscilloscope only much more complicated than just a copper wire."

The lesson went on as Doc opened up my brain housing group and took a look at what was left of my gray matter for lesions, bruising, or electrical burns. When he was satisfied with his inspection he left it open as he went over to examine my brain waves and cybernetic pulse to make sure there were no anomalies. "In a normal Spectre you're not gonna find a human brain. What you will find is a compartmentalized central processing unit that's just about as complicated. If a Spectre is ever reported in as behavin' funny, or seems to have a software malfunction, then it's usually from people tryin' to mess with their programmin' through the same port that we're plugged into here with Grimm. But on the occasion that it is because of hardware you're going to pull out the damaged section and replace it like any other part that's damaged beyond repair."

After an hour I've long since been unplugged, but Lisa had been on a role as a new teacher; having me also demonstrate certain movements. She has been explaining all the parts and the very few and far between difference between me and a Spectre. Mostly my brain was the only significant difference. Beyond that Asuna had learned quite a bit about Spectre anatomy and capabilities. "Thanks for the assist Grimm. See you in the Cantina?" The Cantina was the ship's chow hall that was, like the name implies, more of a large cantina.

"Is that an invitation?"

"More of a suggestion to save you any further annoyances. Heard about the new pilot that thought you were a hunk a junk. Sounds like you've been teaching since you got up today."

"The curse of old age it appears."

Asuna stopped averting her eyes from me to ask, "How old are you?"

"…Data not found."

Asuna was confused, but Lisa spoke up. "He's just joshin' yeah. He's about 57 by know, but because of his condition and all the TBI's he sustained from the war before this one he has corrupted memory. In other words he's forgotten plenty of other things."

"I made my choice to be this for a reason."

"And somebody must have liked your choice; otherwise I would probably just be a coolant tech instead."

"Spectres aren't that old though."

"They weren't being rolled out of the assembly line until the last couple of years true, but they came into development not long after he became the grandfather of them in the old war." There was a disturbance that the others had not detected.

My sudden change of attention seemed to quite them, but I turned back to them, "That history is both privileged and dangerous if it were ever to fall in to wrong hands," I reached around and grabbed the small person listening in. "isn't that right little spy." The spy looked at my sensors with terror, and I let them drop onto their front and placed a heavy metal foot onto the back of his neck. "Alert security to this rat." I ordered and Lisa was fastest to make the call.

After the spy had been stripped of his equipment and thrown into the brig, I made my way to the Cantina. I don't eat, but I can still consume and process liquids; especially alcohol. I don't really need to, and the alcohol no longer has a significant effect on me. But while you can turn people into machines there are still some habits and social behaviors that remain the same around old friends, such as drinking.

"So Grimm when's the last time you got laid?!", Lisa half yelled at me two bar stools over.

I leaned back, "Sometime before I lost my ability to have a libido, and other certain parts associated."

She laughed at that, "I'd still give you a go!"

"Ask again when you're sober."

"You say that every time I ask!"

Greggs chimed in, "Because you're drunk every time you ask. Grimm never goes for the drunk chick at the party. Hahaha."

They continue to bicker when the ship captain Riley Jordan leaned over to me, "You came here for more than drinking and influenced choices today right?"

"Affirmative, any suggestions?"

"I should probably have everyone in some form of command introduce themselves, but…" He looks at the arguing of the drunk pair and shakes his head. "it seems a bit late and we didn't get them all at the same time making it difficult to just set a get together with so much work to do. Just go up and tell them what you are."

So I finish the rest of my drink and proceed to a pile of crates for a stage, and the captain has someone manipulate the lights so I'm the only thing properly illuminated quieting everybody. "Good evening everyone, I am Grimm the ships Chief Pilot and the most experienced member of your command." There were murmurs most about how ridiculous it was to have a robot in command of anyone. "I have registered more combat hours then most of you have lived. I use to be flesh, blood, and bone the same as you long ago, but arrogance and experience have changed that. I will be in the black Stryder on the ground during missions, and you will see firsthand why I am called the Grimm Reaper."

"Story!" yelled the drunken feminine voice.

"Very well how about the reason I am here fighting against the IMC?" No objections were voiced so I continued. "Long ago when the war had ended I was taken away, the government that I had fought for took me. The technology used to make me into what you see today was actually foreign and unknown to humans. The doctor whom had done the work was missing as well, so the most logical thing to do for them was to take me in and put me in a lab. They had me in a big white room full of test equipment that was plugged into me, holding me in place and fully aware of my surroundings and unable to do anything other than activate and deactivate my standby mode which turned on and off my optical lights. They scanned every inch of me, disassembled and reassembled everything except my brain, and examined me 24/7 with an army of doctors, scientist, and researchers. This went on for two years, but then the army became smaller over time. It dwindled to a small team, the 24/7 coverage of my body became a nine to five shift five times a week. It then became ten to twelve once a week, and then eventually, after a decade in all they just stopped coming. A year after that they turned off the lights and cameras to the room. I was left in darkness the only thing entering for four years was energy powering me.

"Then one day something brought me out of my standby mode, the dust particles from ventilation acted abnormal. Fresh air was no longer pumped into my prison so something must have been crawling through. After sometime the ventilation cover was kicked in and a young woman jumped out. With a pistol out she looked around unable to see anything then a moment later she turned on her light and whispered to the vent that it was all clear. I was unsure at the time why, but I decided to turn my optics lights off. Then a middle aged man jumped out next and looked around. They seemed lost, this room wasn't in the schematic, and that's when they looked in the center and saw me. The girl tensed up and aimed for me, but the old man reassured her I was deactivated and a danger to nothing. But then they noticed all the test equipment and the collection of dust on me. Upon closer inspection of me is when I realized why I had turned off my optics lighting; I was planning a prank. When the girl peered at my face I turned them back on scaring her to the ground and firing a bullet that bounced of my shoulder. This caused the older man to draw his weapon as well, but when I had yet to move he laughed in my place. He told her she was just scared by inoperable machine. I blinked to acknowledge this, and thankfully he noticed it. After a one sided conversation and blinking, they went back to being serious. They decided to release me, and I arose for the first time in fifteen years.

"The woman became too nervous and ricocheted another bullet off of me. I was now tired of being shot at so I removed the weapon from her grip. Now the old man was aiming at me with a larger pistol so I pointed the gun at him in return, and we stood there at a standoff. I asked him why he had not shot yet, and he confessed he was going to ask me the same. So we called a truce where I kept the woman's gun. They explained that they were actually here to rescue prisoners, but were unable to find where they were kept. I proceed to download all the information I could from a nearby data port, and told them their mistake. This was actually a research facility and that I was the only prisoner there, but I had downloaded some files that may have had the location of prison facilities. After that I proceed to slaughter everything in my path to freedom including but not limited to guards and Spectres. I then acquired the latest design in Stryder chassis burned my prison to the ground, and left with the name of Grimm."

"Good evening recruits, and welcome to the Militia's most dangerous ship of warriors." I stepped down and heard further murmurs most of disbelief at my statements and story, and I looked towards the captain as the lighting went back to normal.

"I think you stretched it a bit with the warrior part, but other than that it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

A week later we have been slotted to attack a Spectre producing factory, one of only a few that are known of. During that time the majority of recruits still regarded me as just a machine. A couple of the less intelligent recruits even attempted to damage me, only to be soundly beaten and sent to the brig for assaulting an officer. Soon after the incident the recruits avoided me at every physically possible instance.

In a shuttle however there is no avoiding me. As we near the facility I remind the Pilots inside the shuttle with me, "Our objective is to cripple the facility. Ever since Demeter went up in a flash blaze the IMC have been desperately filling their numbers with Spectres based off of me. There is a good chance they know we're coming. Stay sharp, and be ready for anything." I pulled the lever opening the shuttles back rampart, turned around, and jumped out falling several stories down to hot desert. The other Pilot did the same as me, none of us harmed thanks to our jump jets.

We ran forward as others did the same; mostly grunts, but a few other pilots. We ran for the facility as gunfire began hitting few of the Militia forces at this range. At the first ping along my leg I hid behind a rock as a couple of other pilots did the same. The others having different ideas on the approach had left. Wordlessly I exchange my Spitfire LMG for the other Pilot's Krabar-AP sniper rifle. I scope in and find a Spectre operating a mounted turret. Nearby are more Spectres also firing rifles, and something with a familiar yellow sticker was behind them. I fire and an explosion followed by a series of other explosions tears apart the turret's location making a new entry point that has a handful of Spectres immediately exiting from. I empty the Krabar on all that I can find the return the rifle to the Pilot. Greggs' voice comes over my comlink, "Titanfall in two minutes, Lucy is getting a bit antsy." I acknowledge and lead my impromptu apprentices towards the opening as they fire at shapes the same as I. It's mostly to force heads back behind cover rather than to actually hit anything, but I'm not sure the others realize that just yet.

On arrival a one armed Spectre jumps onto the other Pilot with the R101 Carbine and rips off his helmet just before I tear it to pieces with my LMG. The sniper Pilot covers us as I help the recruit that had kicked me in the hangar before, "Thank you, Sir!"

"Don't hesitate to fire next time. It's more dangerous than surprising a Pilot."

His face was red from being recognized, "Yes, Sir!" We continued inside and found a computer station.

"Hold here while I gain access for our hackers." I insert a cable from my left arm, and begin to hack and bypass my way into the system. After establishing a link with our ship I relinquish control to the others in orbit. We continue onwards destroying more Spectres and a couple of enemy soldiers stationed there.

Back outside we see several other buildings that make up the facility, and as expected an enemy Titan rounded a corner towards us. "It's an Ogre!" yelled the sniper who proceeds to pull his MagLauncher into his hands.

"Wait, it will just obliterate use in the open; use the buildings." I proceed to demonstrate as I ran, wall walked, and jumped from building to building with my jump jets avoiding the Ogre's 40mm cannon fire. The others followed suit, but opened fired in turns to distract the Titan as I approached. I landed on the Titan, and opened an all too commonly unsecured maintenance hatch and shoved a satchel charge inside before jumping away. Once I rounded a corner I pulled out the detonator, and double clicked it to ensure the signal is sent. I hear a muffled explosion then the rising whine of a Titan's reactor overloading before a great explosion is seen passing my corner.

I meet up with the other's on top of a building, "Utilize your jump jets properly, and you may survive long enough to win the battle." Yells and explosions can be heard from a distance indicating the presence of other Titans causing havoc. "Continue through the buildings and sabotage the generators and factory lines. I will assist the others."

"Standby for Titanfall." Greggs cuts in. I turn my head to where my HUD indicates Lucy will arrive, and right on the dime she lands immediately rising up from her crouch. She runs along the building with me beeping happily. Jumping from the building she grabs me from the air, and inserts me on the run. Inside displays activate showing me the world outside as a Titan sees it. A plug in too my brain unique to just Lucy and myself gives me full control of the Titan as though it were my own body.

Back on the walled edge of the facility there is another Ogre and an Atlas killing Militia soldiers. I fire a cluster missile at the Atlas gaining its attention away from the soldiers. I run pass the Ogre leaving electric smoke to blind and damage it as I fight the Atlas. The pilot is decent, but compared to me is meaningless. It fires its quad rocket at me, but I dodge it deftly. Before the second volley has exited its tube I am already dodging to the other direction all the while firing my modified XO-16 Chaingun. In two seconds I have shot away its energy shield and have removed most of the chest armoring. Flames are billowing out of it as I punch through the cockpit to remove the enemy Pilot and crush him to gore in my grip. A charged plasma railgun shot taking down my own shields reminds me of the other Titan. I avoid the second less powerful shot firing a cluster missile at it. The Titan quickly raises its arm and catches the missile with a vortex shield before launching it back at me. Dashing right I fire again with the chaingun in a burst forcing him to raise the shield again. It is slowly turning red indicating its dwindling charge. Within Titan arm's length it swings at me, but I grab hold of the arm and shove the chaingun into the joint of the gun arm firing until my rotary magazine emptied and the arm fell off. A warning goes off that the other Titan had a lock on me with slaved warheads, and I dash back the missiles streaming for me. Dodge right, then left from the second barrage then back again as the third barrage of missiles collided with the first that came back around blowing up bringing my shields back down and sending the second barrage off course and into the ground. Through the smoke the Ogre ran through at me. I grabbed its arm again, brought my leg in front of its leg, and pushed it off balance causing it to fall clumsily. On the ground the enemy Pilot is too disoriented to react to my metal foot smashing through its chest killing the Pilot.

I heard cheers from the soldiers that saw my efforts before they went into the facility. The enemy was done, their forces were paltry, and once the hackers gained access the Spectres were either rewritten or destroyed. The facility was now ours in less than 15 minutes. "Incoming enemy ships!" Several ships could be seen jumping into orbit, and only moments later I saw the entry booms of the Titans coming in from orbit. A few other Titans had dropped along with mine, but now there were so many hostiles coming in along with shuttles. The IMC was coming in full force.

Hailing all ground forces and the ship, "All Militia forces retreat. We have sabotaged this facility, but the IMC is here in full force. Begin evac immediately, shuttles will not wait for long." Clouds that went unnoticed before had rolled over, and disturbed by the entry of so much metal at one time began to thunder and drizzle. The IMC Titans were aimed at the center of the facility while enemy shuttles would surround it effectively putting monsters of chaos amongst the Militia forces while the ground forces kept them in a shrinking ring of death.

The rain became a down pour on the arid desert facility as I ran to the largest concentration of Titans. I had reloaded and was prepared to cover the evac of the others no matter the enemy numbers against me. I activated my drive core allowing greater speed then before for a short time unless safety systems were ignored. Just as predicted seven IMC Titans had landed in the center and were firing at anything that moved. One of their Ogres had just finished smashing in the cockpit of an Atlas covered in orange and green paint. Two more Titan's with similar paint jobs lay destroyed nearby. An IMC Stryder appeared in front of me raising its arc cannon still charging to fire at me. I charged into it shoulder first grabbing its weapon and firing my chaingun point blank into the cockpit until finally it stopped moving.

It fell back relinquishing its grip on the arc cannon that I repositioned so as to use it in my off hand. The other six saw this and began to open fire with their various weapons, but followed too slowly to keep the smiling blur insight. In the center of the group my tactical smoke came out in a much more massive cloud as I released all that was contained in now completely empty canisters. I fired a cluster missile in the nearest concentration of shapes forcing them to back away. Then I saw a vortex shield rise within the cloud presenting a target. The shield would protect from the concentrated spray of lead from my chaingun, but against the lighting strikes of the arc cannon the charge of both the vortex and Titan shielding would be quickly overwhelmed after two charged shot from unpredictable directions. Some of the other Titans saw my discharges, and only briefly was I assaulted by shots from cannons and missiles. It was only a fraction of a second, but the result was my shield brought down and entire plates of armor scorched or destroyed. I ignored the pain I felt, and pushed forward now firing my chaingun at the bulbous figure of an Ogre that was losing too much armor plating. Within arm's length I dropped the arc cannon to grab hold of an opening and ripped out more to shove in the barrel of my chaingun firing the small burst of ammo that I had left in the rotary magazine.

The Pilot was dead and the A.I. deemed it necessary to overload the core in self-destruction. I was blocked from getting away from the immanent explosion by an Atlas, but I pulled myself to and around it as a makeshift shield. The Atlas was almost destroyed, but still dangerous as it tried to turn around only to be tripped up, and fall to all fours. Before it got back up I put a foot on it forcing it down while I just finished replacing the magazine, I hefted the 40mm cannon it was holding and slammed the cannon round into its back destroying the core and the Pilot within.

The rain made the smoke short lived unfortunately, but the electrified pool of water was doing a fair job of damaging, and distracting two of the four remaining Titans. But the other two were probably insulated for the same tactical ability. The Stryder stayed back firing its standard chaingun at me while the Atlas charged firing its triple threat at me. I dodged around the balls of explosives fired at me, but the chaingun made it costly. I fired both my guns at both targets the 40mm felt useless as the shots only went wide as the Stryder avoided them only forcing it to stop firing for a second after each shot. My chaingun however dealt considerable damage to the grenade launching Atlas. Dropping the empty cannon I caught one of the grenades and lobbed it back at the assailant, causing them to stumble back. I stepped forward and drove my fist into them and grabbed hold of inside it to hold the limp pile of scrap metal as a shield.

It was difficult to reload with one arm, but the alternative was to be cut down as my shields were recharging. The other Titans, albeit damaged, were no longer affected and were now spreading out to flank me. I fired another cluster missile to my right distracting that Titan, then positioning the scrap metal between me and the left I fired at the reloading Stryder. It fell into a flaming heap from the barrage. The Atlas to my left was pounding into my scrap metal shield with three round bursts from his 40mm as the other Atlas moved towards me with its quad rocket. I shoved the scrap heap into the one on the left, and emptied the other half of my clip into the one on the right. With that one destroyed I picked up his quad rocket, and pointing it at the Atlas that was just untangled from the mess tried to fire the weapon. Tried meaning I did not notice the damage I had caused the weapon from earlier. Tactical smoke was no longer an option, the cluster missile was still reloading having run into some technical difficulties, the drive core had shut down moments ago or it would have imploded, my chaingun was empty on my back, and the quad rocket in my hands was falling apart in front of my sensors. There was too much ground to cover before I would have been too damaged to keep fighting, Lucy was already looking at an overhaul from the damage already received, and the shielding would only last for a single burst.

I ran forward any ways only to be stopped by a giant metal fist punching through the other Titan's chest. It fell to show a Militia Ogre standing there with a plasma cannon and hardly any armor plating left from other Titan battles. It was reloading as I heard the recruit's voice from before come over the radio, "You were amazing sir, but that's still one you owe me."

"Appreciated, let's move to the shuttles immediately for evac." We ran towards the spot marked as the last shuttle took in what was left of our forces. Missiles and machine gun fire arched towards it causing minimal damage.

"We're gonna make it sir!", and right on cue with that statement a beam from a charge rifle hit his Titan through the cockpit and he fell to the ground. I killed the IMC soldier that was now aiming the anti-Titan weapon at me with a quick burst then rolled the destroyed Ogre over. I smashed into the cockpit like I had down so many times before only this time I was careful to pull the Pilot out and carried him to the evac point. Holding him out to be retrieved a pair of grunts ran over, and carried him to the shuttle.

"Incoming Titans!" yelled someone and I turned to see a trio of only slightly damaged IMC Titans running towards the shuttle.

"Evacuate immediately, I will hold them off." I fired my last cluster missile into the group as a sense of nostalgia seemed to sink in. A feeling of familiarity filled my thoughts as I fired my last rotary magazine at the Titan that remained out of cover. A sense of fulfillment came over me as I clubbed at each Titan with my empty gun. The long forgotten thought of inevitability surfaced as my shielding dropped. I fell to the ground the rain finally gave way to ray of light over the escaping shuttle that disappeared when it jumped. "Wonder if he'll get the full package too." I overloaded my core as the trio surrounded me, my nuclear payload making sure I did more than scorch what was left of their plating.

Darkness, then I heard my own voice, "Stand by, enemy Spectre reactivating."


End file.
